Sarah Pohorilak
MIDDLETOWN HIGH SCHOOL130 Valley RoadMiddletown RI 02842401-846-7250
"Middletown High School is an educational community committed to providing the academic, civic, and social tools essential for the future success of our students."


Middletown-football-4-4.jpg
Middletown High School's football team in a huddle during practice.


Introduction:

Middletown High School is a four year public high school that teaches grades 9-12. It is located in Middletown, Rhode Island and is a part of the Middletown Public School district. It is one of Middletown's 4 schools in the district and it is the only high s
Middletown High School Students after their 2010 graduation ceremony.
Middletown High School Students after their 2010 graduation ceremony.
chool in the town. The current principal of the school is former vice principal Gail Abromitis. She started her first year as principle this Fall of 2011. Middletown High School, MHS for short, offers a variety of Advanced Placement courses including Biology, Chemistry, U.S. Histoy and Spanish, only to name a few. Complete with an auditorium, stage, cafeteria, computer lab, infirmary, library and multiple sports facilities, Middletown High School has everything a student can possibly need to better their educational experience. With the abundant student activities and sports programs, balanced with numerous Advanced Placement offerings, a low 1:10 student-teacher ratio (compared with the 1:11 state average) and high marks in state and national report cards characterize this school of about 675 students. This report is intended to inform members of the community, current students, prospecting students and anyone who is interested in learning more about this wonderful high school and the district it is located in.



Community Background:

To get an idea of the size of this community let's look at the population. The total population of Middletown, Rhode Island as of the 2010 U.S census was 16,150 people. The entire state of Rhode Island has a population of 1,052,568. The child population in Middletown is 4,328 compared to Rhode Island which has 247,822 children. This town is located very close to, if not next door to, Newport, Rhode Island. Newport is one of the wealthier parts of Rhode Island and is a common vacation spot for most people. Because Middletown is so close to this part of Rhode Island, the median family incomes here are higher than the statewide median of family incomes. For example, the median family income for the state of Rhode Island is $52,781 and the median family income for the town of Middletown is $81,528. The household income for Middletown is $51,075 which, like the family income, is greater than the state average of $42,090.external image racepopulation.png The family income being so high means that the people in that family are working and bringing in some sort of income to the family. There are 8,935 people over the age of 16 that are employeed in this town. Compared to the statewide number of 500,731. This actually is one of the reasons as to why the median family income average is so high. With younger teens working, they are contributing to the amount of money the family as a whole is making. However, there are some teen that are not in school and are not working. 7.7% of teens are neither compared to Rhode Island's average of 7.3%. The amount of children living in families below the federal poverty level is at 6.2% compared to Rhode Island where 16.9% are. Middletown is a pretty diverse town. The percentage of White individuals in this community is 87.2% compared to Rhode Island where the percent is 81.4%. The second highest percentage is that of Hispanic individuals. They make up 4.7% of the comunity in Middletown compared to the 12.4% in Rhode Island as a whole. The remainder of the Middletown community consists of 4.5% African American, 3.0% Asian and 0.3% American Indian or Alaska native.


Chart Showing Statistics About Children Comparing RI to Middletown in 1990 and 2000
Chart Showing Statistics About Children Comparing RI to Middletown in 1990 and 2000

District Summary:


District map graphic
District map graphic

When compared to the state of Rhode Island, the Middletown School District has a significantly better proficiency in the NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program) testing. In almost every grade and every subject, whether it be by 1% or by 9%, Middletown schools showed better proficiency than the state averages. In 8th grade reading, Middletown had 80% proficient compared to Rhode Island at 74% proficiency. In 8th grade math, 74% compared to Rhode Island's 54%. In 8th grade writing, Middletown had 65% proficiency compared to Rhode Island's 61% proficient and finally in 8th grade science, the Middletown district scored 29% proficient, again better than the state percentage of 22%proficient. The Middletown disctrict scores better than the state's proficiency in grades 3, 6, 7 and 11 in all subects as well. A teacher with emergency certification is one who does not qualify for full state certification and may be granted an emergency certificate to teach in public school. They are also known as "long-term substitutes". The Middletown School District has 1%of teacher with this emergency certification as does the state of Rhode Island. To be concidered a "highly-qualified" teacher, one must 1. have a Bachelor's Degree, 2. hold full state certification and 3. demonstrate subject matter competency in the core acedemic subject(s). In the Middletown District, 1% of teachers are not fully qualified compared to the 3% of teachers that aren't qualified in the entire state. As stated in the introduction paragraph, the teacher-student ratio is 1:10. Rhode Island's is 1:11. Having a smaller teacher-student ratio means more one-on-one teaching leading to a better understanding of what is going on in the classroom. In the Middletown district, 25% of all students are eligibly for subsidized lunches. The state percentage is 43%. Students being eligible for a subsidized lunch means that, dependng on the parents income, they may qualify for free or reduced price lunches. The attendance rate for all schools in the Middletown district is 95% compared to 93% in Rhode Island. In 2010, 82% of all students graduated in the Middletown distract compared to the 75.8% that graduated in the state. The property value per student in Middletown is $1,231,900.65 and the per pupil expendure is $14,789.48.


external image necap8thgrade.png
Student Achievement / NECAP Assessments; Middletown, RI; 8th Grade Math 2010-11
Student Achievement / NECAP Assessments; Middletown, RI; 8th Grade Math 2010-11


School Analysis:

Middletown High School is the only high school in the Middletown School District. Being the only high school in this distrct, there is no other high school to compare theit NECAP schools to. However, compared to the entire state of Rhode Island's NECAP scores, Middletown High School's 11th grade math, reading, writing and science scores showed better than the state's. In 11th grade math, Middletown scored 57% proficient compared to the state average proficiency of 33%. In reading, Middltwon scored 84% proficient compared to Rhode Island's 76%. Middletown scored 66% in writing compared to the state's 51%. The science scores also showed better proficiency than Rhode Island's by scoring 25% compared to 20%. Middletown High School also did better than the state averages on the SAT tests as well. Middletown High School scored a 524 on math, a 500 on reading and a 494 on writing. Compared to the state averages of 482 on math, 482 on reading and 474 on writing. Because Middletown High School is the only high school in the ditrict, let's compare it to Central Falls high school. Middletown High has 0% of teachers with emergency certification where Central Falls High School has 2%. The teacher to student ration in Middletown High is 1:10 compared to Central Falls where it is 1:9. It's better to have less students per 1 teacher especially in low-performing schools because it
external image mhsattendance.png
provides more time for the teacher to spend on each student individually. The state attendance rate target is 91%. Middletown High School has an attendance rate of 94% and Central Falls has an attendance rate of 88%. Compared to the attendance rate, the chronic absenteeism for the 2008-09 school year in Middletown was 11%. Central Falls chronic absenteeism rate was 41%. There is a shocking difference between Middletown High School and Central Falls High School. When you take Barrington High School into the mix, an upper-class high school, you can see that their attendance rates were 96% and their chronic absenteeism rates were 5%. Compared to these other two schools, a high-end school and a low-end school, it is clear that Middletown High School sits comfortably in the middle of the two extremes. Middletown has 19% of students eligible for subsidized lunch compared to Barrington who has 4% and Central Falls who have 61%. Middletown High School also has 3% of their students recieving special education services. Barrington High School has 11% and Central Falls High School has 24%. Middeltown High School has an extremely high property value per student. It is $1,231,900.65. Barrington's is $894,098.80 and Central Fall's is $196,417.72. Here is a chart showing some more funding statistics of Middletown High School.

external image mhsfunding.png


Middletown High School has a lot of extracurricular activities that they encourage students to join. Some of these include: Academic Decathlon, Band, Best Buddies, Chorus, Close-Up, Student Council, Drama Club, Math Team, Mock Trial, U.S. 1st Robotics Team, National Honor Society, Ski Club, Leo Club, Wave Newspaper, TEMPO Literacy Magazine, Islander Yearbook. No matter what a student's interests may be, Middletown High School has a very wide variety of student activities for anyone. This high school also offers alot of sports teams which students can choose to play on. In order to play on the teams or participate in the extracurricular activities, students must first meet elegibility requirements. To be eligible, student athletes must be passing 60% of their courseload. Fall sports must look at the end of the previous year's grades to determine eligibility. The student must also have a gradepoint average of at least a 2.0 in order to participate. Here are a list of sports for each of the seasons.

Fall: Cheerleading, Cross Country, Football, Girls Tennis, Soccer and Volleyball.
Winter: Cheerleading, Basketball, Gymnastics, Hockey, Swimming and Wrestling.
Spring: Baseball, Boys' Tennis, LaCrosse, Golf, Softball and Track.

external image mhssports.png

Conclusion:

Middletown High School is a wonderful school filled with caring teachers, aides and coaches who all share the common goal of helping their students succeed. This school is located in a great location in Rhode Island and would be a wonderful place for any high school student to get their education. The school is performing above average in NECAP and AP testing of the 11th grade levels. Compared to other districts, Middletown High School excells in all that it does and would be a great choice of school for anyone from the small town of Middletown.

‍References:

http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov/school/middletown-high-school
http://uriopenminds.wikispaces.com/Classical+High+School+Spring+2011
http://www.rikidscount.org/matriarch/documents/Middletown_2011.pdf
http://www.ri.net/middletown/mhs/
http://middletown.patch.com/listings/middletown-high-school